Crawford & Benavidez Not Interested in Fighting Each Other
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Phoenix, Arizona (October 9th, 2025)– Saudi promoter Turki Alalshikh stated on a post on X “Can David Benavidez still make 168 pounds?” Alalshikh, who promoted Canelo Alvarez vs. Crawford, could do David vs. Bud.
World Light heavyweight champion David Benavidez, who will defend his World Boxing Council World Light Heavyweight title against Anthony Yarde next month, has formally rejected a return to 168 pounds and a potential super match against Bud Crawford. Former champion Saul Alvarez, facing elbow surgery after losing to Crawford, is now sidelined.
Benavidez, 30-0 with 24 knockouts, Miami, Florida, and Crawford, 42-0 with 31 knockouts, Omaha, Nebraska, the southpaw World Super Middleweight champion, have one common denominator. Crawford has defeated David’s brother, Jose Benavidez Jr., in defense of his WBO World Welterweight title, a 12th-round stoppage in Omaha in October 2018 after knocking Jose down and effectively wrecking his career. Jose has won only one his last six bouts in the last seven years, from the Crawford loss, to a no-contest with Danny Rosenberger at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in February 2025, going 1-3-1 with one No-Contest during that stretch.
David Benavidez told Fight Hub TV that “I’m done with 168 [the super middleweight division]. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Crawford. He put on a hell of a performance. He’s up there on the Mount Rushmore of the greatest fighters of all time. Let Crawford do his thing, bro. At the end of the day, I have no interest in fighting Crawford. I have no interest in going down to 168. Yeah, it would be dope [for me] winning all the titles, but I’m way past that at 168. I wouldn’t even go down to 168 for Canelo. I’m just being real with you, I’m not saying I’m scared of Crawford, or whatever. Crawford’s the man at 168. That’s his [super middleweight] weight class.”
When Benavidez asked whether he would go down to fight Crawford at 168 pounds if he was given $120 million dollars, his reply was “$120 million sounds good-but-honestly-at the end of the day-no! They won’t give me 120 million [dollars]. I don’t think Canelo [Alvarez] got 120 million [dollars] to fight Crawford. No man-I’m done at 168. They can throw whatever money they want at me. My job is not only to get the money. My job is to give myself the best chance to win and to give myself the best chance of looking good.”
The reality of the situation is exactly what Bud Crawford stated previously. Benavidez is too big at 175 pounds. However, Canelo went up to 175 pounds to fight and defeat Sergey Kovalev. Crawford is not going up in weight at age 38. Benavidez is not going down in weight.
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